THE VIRTUES OF DRESS,

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 998, 13 December 1910, Page 9

THE VIRTUES OF DRESS,

At last a man—and he is moreover a clergyman—has arrived at a sensible conclusion about women's dress, says a writer in an English paper. Ho has had the courage to denounce the dowd, and ..the ..temerity to advise men to chooso as - Wlv ? s „ \ hos ? £ irls whosß Kowns aro modelled after tho latest fashions, and whose hats aro of the newest shapes. jNow, this is common sense, and plainly shows that at least one man has grasped the fact that because "a"-woman seeks to array herself according to. fashion's dictates, not only is she not a brainless idiot and wantonly extravagant, the last expression m frivolity, and most, other things that aro undesirable,, but an contairc, she thereby proves herself to be a more mentally alert and generally more capablo person than her dowdv sister. -Over and over again it has been urged that dress exercises an immense influence over tho mind. A new hat, a gown in which she feels she looks well, has a positively tonic effect, on, a woman, and there is no denying the fact, that on other people no less than on herself, she produces a much more poothing effect if she is parbed quite a la mode, than if she is flun? together anyhow. Take • -what is called a "fnshion" nlate" into ■ an assembly of drabby females, who havo not a single smart garment between them, and watch the effect. Thev may disapprove, but. they feel their 'inferiority. They may bo younger in yenrs, but they instantly, feel older in spirit; they realise that (hey have missed something that can only bo imparted by the knowledge that one is good to look upon, and though a woman may bo plain or . past her first youth, she may always feel assured that she is this if her clotlies ' are up-to-date. In aclvisinr; men to chooso I girls who take a real, dolipht in-keeping I abrmst of Jfrulame La Mode this sauient

American cleric has shown a far better understanding of women than the majority of his sex. For it is a fact, as he points out, that the woman who likes to bo in "the- latest fashion" is not likely to he a dull housewife or a social failure, whereas the girl who. is indifferent to Fashion is far "more likely to have, a dreary mind and manner, and to be narrow in views. It is woman's natural instinct to wish to look nice. If she does not possess it, if she is not stirred by a change of modes, and eager to be as Fashion. dictates, it is. obvious that slie is in some way unwomanly, or at least not normal.. Wo .do not want till women to bo slavish imitations of each other, but unless they follow the broad lines of Fnshion ther can never know or dispense the full joy of life. .